We are writing to inform you of costs being applied to your credit card for three delinquent DVDs at our LoraineBranch of Your Local Video Store. We have attempted to call you several timesat your residence and have not beenable toreach you and the three DVDs,Wrestlemania 22, Ernest Goes FishingandFour Funerals and aWedding:or Five of the Same Thing,were checked outon 15 March and are nowover 30 days past due.

If you have the DVDs at home and wish to return them, we will accept them until 20 April, where再這一點上you will be fined $25.00 for each DVD. If you have lost or damaged them then your account will be charge $80.97 for each DVD plus a 10% processing and ordering fee for each of the replacements. Your membership has also been suspended, pending cancellation.

If this letter has reached you in error please contact us at your earliest convenience so we may resolve this matter.

Sincerely.

Ann Gauthier Owner, Your Local Video Store

Dear Ms. Gauthier:

I believe I have received a letter from your store/company by mistakeregarding delinquent DVDs and having charges placed on my credit card for items not returned to your store. To begin with, I do not have a membership at Your Local Video Store and secondly, I do not have a DVD player, so I know that I have notrentednorhave I been in your store for any business purposes. However, I have checked my credit card statement and your store has charged my credit card for several DVDs and I am extremely concernedabout how you obtained my credit card information. I have already contacted my credit card company and have asked them to close my account/issue new cards, not because you charged my account, but because you had my credit card information, which I know I did not give you. I am highly concerned one of my teenage neighbors has eitheraccessed my mailorgone through my garbage to get my credit card information and has used it at your store./ acquire / attain / gain / obtain/ get /

Please cancel my account, if you have not already done so, and please contact me so that we may contact the police together to better solve this problem. While it is unfortunate that your store has been victimized in my name, it is worse for me to think what might be happening with my credit card. I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Yours in good faith, Yvonne Tyler

( ) 196. How much will Yvonne Tyler's credit cards be charged if she doesn't return the DVDs?

Buying or selling real estate/ state / status / stature /statue ( statue / figure / figurine )with the aidof agencies has beenaroundfor years and is becoming popular herein this country. Customers/ customer / costume / costumes / pay the consulting/ consult / consultant / console / consolation / council / counsel / councilor / feeonly one time and can get professional information aboutrealestates deals. Such service can save consumers a lot of time,but if customers contact illegal agencies, which have no license or are not members of a city orcountyassociation, they willvery likely have to deal with problems such as the same housebeing sold to more than one buyer, fraud and fakecontracts. When these problems happen, exploited customers have no protection at all.

Toprovide a legal, safe and well-protected environment for customers, the president of theAssociation of Real EstateBrokers/ agency / dealerand a lot oflegislators have workedvery hard to establish the real estate brokersregulation law, which was passedin 2000 and put into practice at the end of 2003 to regulate alltheagencies.

This law was established not onlytodevelop a license system for real estate agents, butalsotogenerate guarantee deposits and specialpermissionregulations. With this law, customers can have a professional and well-protected environment in the real estate business. Besides, real estate agents' licenses are given to those agents who haveundergone specifictraining. Once they are trained, they will be capable ofhelping customers find their ideal realestate, offering them information about the real estate, the environment, market analysis, taxes, and even long-termed planning.

( ) 48. According to the article, which of the following is NOT true ?

(A)Buying real estate through agencies has been around for years in this country.

(B)Very few peoplein this country would like to sell real estate through agencies.

(C)Such a service from agencies can save consumers a lot of time.

(D)Illegalagencies are those who have no license or arc not members of a city or county association.

( ) 49. What can customers getafter they pay the consulting fee?

(A)The houses that they want to buy.

(B)The licenses.

(C)The fake contracts

(D)Professional information about real estates deals

( ) 50. When was the real estate brokers regulation law put into practice?

Recently 1 purchased a DVD player from Clinton Appliances in Kaohsiung City. Uponsetting up my new DVD player at home, I found that it only played DVDs that I purchased from Clinton Appliances and none of the DVDs I ownedpriortopurchase of this DVD player, norany of the DVDs that I rented from my local DVD/VCD rental store. I attempted to return or exchange my DVD playerfive days laterat Clinton Appliances (I had my sales receipt/ recipe, supporting documents/ warranty, the original box, etc.) and was told by the manager I could not refund or exchange my DVD player even though I've only owned it for fivedays, had all my supporting documents and it didn't work.

I am askingfor your help in getting a refund for my DVD player and would also like to filea complaintagainst Clinton 'Appliances with you and any government agencies that would help alert otherunsuspectingcustomersof Clinton Appliances' unethical and devious business practices.

Sincerely, David Bean

Dear Mr.Bean:

Thank you for taking the time to contactthe Consumer Advocacy Group of Kaohsiung. We recently contactedClinton Appliances and spoke with the owner ofthe store, Mrs. Clinton, and described your complaint and our situation to her. After thoughtful consideration, Mrs. Clinton has agreed to refund your DVD player on the promise/ premise that you will notfile any formal complaintagainst her or Clinton Appliances. Mrs. Clinton told us she has had several financial losseswithcustomers damaging, altering or attempting to swindle her in various manners and has a no refund or exchange policy. She is willing to overlook that policy in your case.

Mrs. Clinton asksthat you please bring this letter with you upon returning the DVD player and alsobe willing to agree to sign a form stating you will not fileany complaintsagainst her or Clinton Appliances.

Inour professional opinion we recommend that you accept Mrs.Clinton's kindness and return your DVD player as soon as possible.At your earliest convenience

If there isanything else that we may do for you in this case please do nothesitate to contact us. If this case should require further attention please use the following reference number: 2006061OA.

Sincerely, Katy Lin

Customer Advocacy Group Coordinator

( ) 186. What was the reason the man wanted to return his DVD player?

(A)He found a similar one at a cheaper price

(B)The DVD player was incompatible with his DVDs<C) The DVD player kept overheating

The Medical Minute: Reducing the risk of stroke(sudden stoppage of blood flow to the brain)

Patients who have a family history of stroke, who have medical risk factors for atherosclerotic/ arthritis /atheroma disease, who have had a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or a previous stroke are at increased risk of suffering a stroke. However, there are ways to considerably reduce the likelihood of this potentially devastating occurrence. According to the latest edition of The Medical Minute, a service of the Penn/ PennsylvaniaState Hershey Medical Center, these include the control of risk factors, surgical treatment of atherosclerotic disease, antithrombotic血栓形成,栓塞treatments for cardiac embolism (clots) and the use of antiplatelet agents for non-cardiac embolic stroke.

( ) 178. What is the main purpose of this announcement?

(A) To inform people of the importance of a good diet and exercise

(B)To show that immediate treatment after a stroke can reverse the effects of a stroke

9. Kant’s Criticisms of Utilitarianism

Kant’s criticisms of utilitarianism have become famous enough to warrant some separate discussion. Utilitarian moral theories evaluate the moral worth of action on the basis of happiness that is produced by an action.Whatever produces the most happiness in the most people isthe moral course of action. Kant has an insightful objection to moral evaluationsof this sort. The essence of the objection is that utilitarian theories actually devalue the individualsit is supposed to benefit. If we allow utilitarian calculations to motivate ouractions, we are allowing the valuation of one person’s welfare and interests in terms of what good they can be used for. It would be possible, for instance, to justify sacrificing one individual for the benefits of others if the utilitarian calculations promise more benefit. Doing so would be the worst example of treating someone utterly as a means and not as an end in themselves.

Another way to consider his objection is to note that utilitarian theories are driven by the merely contingent inclination in humans for pleasure and happiness, not by the universalmoral lawdictated by reason. To act in pursuit of happiness is arbitrary and subjective, and is no more moral than acting on the basis of greed, or selfishness. All three emanate from subjective, non-rational grounds. The danger of utilitarianism lies in its embracing of baser instincts, while rejecting the indispensable role of reason and freedom in our actions.

Utilitarianism (also: utilism) is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its usefulness in maximizing utilityas summed among all sentientbeings. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. The most influential contributors to this theory are considered to be Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

In general usage, the term utilitarian refers to a somewhat narrow economic or pragmatic viewpoint. Philosophical utilitarianism, however, is a much broader view that encompasses all aspects of people's life.

Both rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism are teleological (from the Greek τέλοϛ for "end", "purpose", or "goal") meaning that they are consequential, however Bentham's act utilitarianism is primarily absolutist, even though it is much more free than theories such as those put forward by Immanuel Kant. This means that in all acts require "Felicific calculus" to achieve "the greatest pleasure for the greatest number." Therefore there are definite rules and codes as to what the person must do in each situation to benefit the most people. The hedonic calculus is what Bentham thought all people must do before deciding the utility of the certain act in question. It is dependent on:

Its intensity.

Its duration.

Its certainty or uncertainty.

Its propinquity, or remoteness.

Its fecundity, or the chance it has of being followed by similar sensations: that is, pleasures, if it is pleasure: pains, if it is pain.

Its purity, or the chance it has of not being followed by, sensations of the opposite kind: that is, pain, if it is pleasure: pleasure, if it is pain.

Its extent (the number of people who are affected by it).

However, Mill's rule utilitarianism is much more relative in that he encourages people to do acts that are pleasurable to themselves as long as they are what he calls a "higher pleasure" for example, the arts like literature, poetry, the opera. However, the meta-ethics of rule utilitarianism can be questioned as they are much more absolutist, since Mill is absolute in what he values as a higher pleasure.